


Don't bury me. Don't let me down.

by youngjusticewriter



Series: Despite your words you care. [5]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Character Death, Dead Robins Club, Gen, Lazarus Pit, Mild Language, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-09-12 23:02:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9094615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youngjusticewriter/pseuds/youngjusticewriter
Summary: Jason learns of about Stephanie Brown's death and comes back to Gotham, to home.





	1. Another child has been caught in crossfire.

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Forget you I will not (my fellow dead Robin).](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9072673) by [youngjusticewriter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/youngjusticewriter/pseuds/youngjusticewriter). 



To say his reaction to news had been terrible would be understatement. Jason broke everything in the current apartment (he had been in Nantes, France at the time learning under a poisoner that occasionally worked for Talia) he was staying in. 

It took an hour for him to destroy everything in his apartment. Afterwards he sat in a corner of his apartment hunched over watching blood fall from his hands fall to the ground, staining the carpet. Talia probably would rebuke him for his reaction once she found out that he had destroyed one of her beloved safehouses. Jason could not find himself to give a fuck especially when she had not informed him of what had happened. 

Jason’s replacement, Timothy Drake, had stopped being Robin for some reason and Bruce had replaced the replacement (Jason had admittedly felt glee at that.) with a girl. Stephanie Brown who was just like him. A true child of Gotham. 

She hadn’t been rich like Bruce or Tim. She hadn’t been one of the world’s greatest gymnast like Jason’s predecessor either. She had been the daughter of the Cluemaster (a criminal that Jason had fought once when he had Robin) and her mother was a druggie. God had they been a like and that was before Jason had learnt what had happened to her. 

She was dead. Tortured by Black Mask before dying. One would have thought that Bruce would have learnt after what had happened after him. The stubborn moral asshole hadn’t (but don’t worry Jason would once it was time) and another kid was dead because he hadn’t learnt the lesson. 

Jason got up on stiff knees. He walked over to his nightstand where his burner phone was not caring about the blood that fell from his hands as he walked over there. He opened the phone and called the airport that less than a mile from his apartment. He needed a ticket to Gotham City for a death in family was what he told the lady on the phone.


	2. Arrival.

He’s not even off the plane (and on Gotham soil) for a minute before his burner phone starts ringing. Unsurprisingly it’s Talia. Jason doesn’t answer her. He is thankful for all that she done for him but this is something he has to do. Alone. 

If he can’t face his past, his demons, his nightmares now how can he when he comes back as the Red Hood? He can’t and that’s why he’s not answering Talia calls. He needs to face this alone without anyone telling him what to do with. 

Jason walks over to the airport receptionist. She’s blonde with pixie cut, gracefully tall with brown eyes. She’s admittedly attractive but Jason doesn’t like the way she eyes him like a dog does a bone. 

“Where’s the nearest hotel?” He asks her in a polite tone even though his hair is standing up. Was it just her or was it him being back in Gotham? 

“The Clapton. It’s a four star hotel less than a mile away. I’ll call a cab for you Mister?” 

“Peter and I’m fine without the cab.” He gives her small smile and walks to the exit. He wasn’t lying about not needing a cab just to get away from her. He plans on walking. Seeing how much Gotham, his home, has changed while he’s been gone. 

He’s not even out of the airport when he stops. At the Gotham Gazette news stand. 

“How much?” His voice comes out in a cold tone. The man who works at the stand looks up. Jason can see his brown hair is oily even though he’s wearing a baseball hat. (It says that wine improves with age while I just improve with alcohol. Jason sincerely doubts it.) He’s wearing a black hoodie along with simple pair of blue jeans. How exactly did this guy get a job selling Gotham Gazette. 

“I take it by your tone-” the man gives him a smile that spells trouble “- you liked the previous Robin better. And who didn’t with those bre-” Jason is seeing red. Stephanie Brown died because of she took on the mantle of Robin and the honor for her sacrifice is some asshole talking about her body and Tim replacing her just like he had him. It had been less than two weeks since her death and he had jumped back into the Robin suit as if her death hadn’t meant nothing. If Jason hadn’t hated Tim for replacing him he did now. 

The man doesn’t even get to finish his sentence because Jason slams his face into the newspaper stand. Jason grabs a newspaper and walks off before he does something he regrets. Hurting that man Jason wouldn’t regret but he would regret the attention it would bring. He needs to off the radar and picking a fight in airport is not how one stays off the radar. 

*  
It takes less than an hour to unload the stuff he brought along. One learns to pack the bare essentials when spending time in League of Assassins. 

It’s after packing and having a cup of hot chocolate (not as good as Alfred’s) that Talia calls again. This time he doesn’t ignore it. It’s because he doesn’t want to be alone with his thoughts after learning that Bruce had let his replacement become Robin again. Had they meant anything to Bruce? 

“Talia I’m really not in the mood to be berated,” he warns her first off. 

“Then it good that I didn’t call to do so. While in Gotham you should do useful things while mourning the girls death. You should find your original coffin maker to replace the one you broke out off to cover your tracks Jason while you are in town. There is something else. There's new business in Gotham. He is calling himself Hush. You two should meet.” 

“...Thank you for understanding I needed to come back.” It’s been a long time since Jason has been thankful for something.

“You're welcome Jason. Just do me a favor and do not destroy the hotel room you're staying at like you did my safehouse.” Jason gave a small smile at that. He knew she was going to mention that sooner or later.


	3. Come hell or high water.

Jason wakes up about to scream. After everything that happened to him (being tortured, dying, coming back, and a dip in the Lazarus Pit) it’s not out of the norm to have nightmares. But the nightmare Jason just had...

It felt real. Like it was a forgotten memory. Jason runs a hand through his sweaty hair. It could have been a forgotten if it wasn’t for the fact the hands trying claw their way out of the grave had been so small. Feminine. 

Jason sits up at the realization and was suddenly wide awake. It could have been just a dream. Just a nightmare from having to come back to Gotham - to home. There was no way...

Except the universe had never cared about the not possible. The no ways. The universe also loved fucking with Jason Peter Todd. Afterall him coming back shouldn’t have been possible and yet here he was alive and so very damaged. 

Jason pulled the covers off him before walking over to the dresser. He slipped on some jeans, a black t-shirt, and his brown leather jacket before grabbing his wallet and phone. He was going to go buy a shovel and visit Stephanie’s grave. 

If there was a chance (a very slim chance) that Stephanie Brown would have to go through what he did then it didn’t matter what hour it was or his lack of peaceful sleep. Jason was going to be there. Come hell or high water.


	4. Leave you I will not (my fellow dead Robin).

She’s buried in a public cemetery instead of the Wayne one like he was. Was it because Bruce hadn’t adopted her or was there something else to it? Jason wasn’t sure. He didn’t know the reasons because he was dead to the family (if it could be called that) until he wasn’t dead.

And that was why Jason was here. hey- Ra’s, Talia, and him- had never found out what had brought him back from the dead. There was a chance that it could happen again. A very slim chance that both Ra’s and Talia did not believe in. Least not any longer. 

It had been months since her- Stephanie’s- burial and she had yet to come back to life like he had. She wouldn’t have to crawl out of her grave though. 

Despite Talia protests that he needed to come back, to finish his training so that he could avenge his and Stephanie's deaths Jason had remained in Gotham. And every single night since she had been buried Jason dug up her grave so she wouldn’t have to dig her way out of it like he had. (She wouldn’t have to make her fingers bleed and have splinters in them from crawling out of her own grave.) 

And before dawn broke Jason covered her coffin back up with the dirt that had been on top of it. No one noticed that the grave had yet to have grow grass on it despite the time that had passed since the burial. (This just added to belief that there was something else to why she hadn’t been buried in Wayne cemetery.) Just like no had noticed Jason digging out of his.

It honestly made Jason see red. They had been murdered for Bruce’s cause and he couldn’t even visit their goddamn graves to notice (and Bruce would notice - he didn’t get the title of “World’s Greatest Detective” for shits and giggles) that the grass had yet to grown on the grave? 

What about Alfred? Why had the kindly (yet badass) English butler that had been the closest thing Jason had to a grandfather visit their graves? While Bruce’s actions made Jason see red Alfred’s actions made Jason’s eyes burn in tears. Had he - they meant nothing to them? 

It didn’t matter (it did) that Bruce, Alfred, or Crystal Brown visit the graves. Jason was here; under the moon watching Steph’s opened coffin as he leaned against a tombstone across her dug up grave. He’s be here despite the smell of her decomposing body and he would stay here. It didn’t matter how long it took but Jason was going to be here. She wouldn’t have to go through what he had. 

No Robin- even the replacement, who Jason was still beyond pissed at- ever would not when Jason was still kicking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to this part of the series is done. This chapter was based on a drabble I made called "Forget you I will not (my fellow dead Robin)."


	5. Robins can rise from their ashes too.

Burning. 

That’s the first sensation Stephanie Brown feels as she wakes up. The second is that she can hear someone screaming in the background. 

The burning green liquid horror movie reject (because creepy green liquid oozes - it doesn’t burn) burns her body and her throat. Her ears are ringing and her eyesight is blurry. 

She claws at her throat that feels microwaved, teary ears shut in case that would help stop the burning sensation, as memories flash in her head. Suddenly she’s not crying because of her eyes but because she remembers. 

And it hurts. 

More than the power drill or the bullet that Black Mask had "given" her. 

“Calm down,” a stranger tells her as he picks her up bridal style and carries her out of the burning liquid nightmare. It takes a minute to realize that the screaming she’s been hearing is her own scream. 

Oh, she thinks dumbly before wincing. 

Turning her focus on the guy carrying her Steph gets an eerie feeling. I’ve seen you before, Steph wanted to tell him but she was afraid if she opened her mouth she would start back screaming. 

The guy sits her down gently on the stone floor as though she’s one of those Russian nesting dolls Steph has only seen on tv. He moves in front of her and sits down so he could be looking at each other without him looking down oh her.

“Welcome back Stephanie,” the guy greets her softly. She hates how he keeps treating her like she’s fragile thing. She’s not. She’s the girl who quips at the guy who tortures her with everything but the kitchen sink. 

“My name is Jason Todd and you're like me. A month ago you craw-” Steph could hear him but, like early, it’s in the background. Why? Because Jason Todd was the Robin before Tim. The Robin that something bad - really bad - had happened to him. 

Jason Todd was the Robin that had died; had been murdered by the Joker. 

Suddenly Steph felt like screaming her head off once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And part one is finished.

**Author's Note:**

> 1.) This is part one of the spin-off series of Forget you I will not (my fellow dead Robin). 
> 
> 2.) In the comics Steph didn't die by the injuries she got from being tortured by Blask Mask in this fanfiction series Steph did die (she kinda has to for the plot).


End file.
